An Unusual Family Reunion: the Descendants of William Douse of Prince Edward Island

It was not the sort of event you’d expect to find on the agenda of a family reunion, even a reunion of the Douse family.

William Douse was from Wiltshire, England. He emigrated to Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1822 and became a successful businessman until his death in 1864. He was buried in a large crypt in the Old Protestant Burying Ground on University Avenue in Charlottetown. One hundred fifty years later, his descendants decided to open the crypt and to make repairs, making sure that William Douse and other family members entombed with him would rest in peace in restored surroundings. The opening and repairs were made during a multi-day family reunion.

You can read the story and see pictures in an article by Charles Wilkins in The Star at http://goo.gl/0GXeDo.

My thanks to the several newsletter readers who notified me of this story.

Dick Eastman has been involved in genealogy for more than 35 years. He
has worked in the computer industry for more than 40 years in hardware,
software, and managerial positions. By the early 1970s, Dick was already
using a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards. He
built his first home computer in 1980.